Well all know by now that the Raspberry Pi is a fun, fairly amazing little device. Creative people have been finding a number of uses for the two models, but this is the first time we’ve seen one make an iconic movie figure come alive. A Star Wars fan known by the alias “greenshell” used a Raspberry Pi, the Raspbian operating system, and a broken interactive toy R2-D2 to make a working replica of the famous droid.

This droid doesn’t just move around and beep a few lines from the movies, but actually sports a fair bit of complex interactivity. The droid is bilingual, able to respond to both English and Chinese commands, and can turn on through the use of motion detection. The unit has voice commands, and uses that functionality in conjunction with face recognition in order to tailor the commands to the specific person it sees. The voice commands it can react to include such things as the operator telling the droid in which direction to look, or which direction to move.

Along with the above features, the Raspi-D2 also sports distance detection so it doesn’t run into objects when it is moving around, and can playback audio messages like in the movies. Though the unit sports WiFi, greenshell doesn’t state why, but we’re assuming it’s for some kind of added remote control for when you don’t feel like using the voice commands. Perhaps best of all, R2-D2 is powered by a rechargeable battery, so he won’t cost a fortune to keep powered on.

Greenshell didn’t just make the interactive R2-D2 so he could have a famous robot butler follow him around the house, but he made it as a present for his girlfriend, and in the process, made the rest of us look like we’re not even trying with our present ideas.